Athens: one more state murder - one more riot
From July 7 - July 9 was held the 24th antiracist festival in Athens. The years before it happened in Zografou University but was banned from there because of the riots last year and the general repression of ND government against political spaces in universities.
For this reason the festivsal moved to a sporting complex in the park of Galatsi, a western neigborhood in Athens.
Police says, also in Galatsi a 20 years old migrant from Syria stole a car and was spotted at a toll station on the road to Larissa. Police tried to stop the car on Saturday, July 8 and they chased the car until it to drove into a fence near Larissa. The driver tried to escape, jumping over a fence from a house, when he was executed by a police officer, shooting him in the back. Police says also, the Syrian national was in prison until March for bringing people over the Greek border. A very symbolic state murder.
In the evening of the same day, around 100 people attacked the construction site of the new metro line in front of the antiracist festival. This is the metro line which will also connect with Platia of Exarchia, which is under police occupation for this reason since one year. Some machines from the construction site were burned and arriving police forces came into a street battle at the gate to the festival, which lasted for two hours. The position of the mainly leftist organizers was in solidarity but they were not happy about the riots.
Creative Commons by-sa: Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen